Method of making articles of ceramic bonded granular material



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MILTUN 1 BEESHEIR ANY!) MACDONALD C. BOOZE, F WC?lief/EFHJEH, MASSACHUfl-EE'fil,

AS'SIG'NOES '10 NORCI'ON COMPANY, OF

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WORCESTER, MIASSELUHUSETTS. .tl. E617.-

METHOD 0E MArKING ARTICLES OF CERAMIC BONDED GRAHULAR IMIATERIAL.

no Drawing.

ToaZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, MILTON F. Baseline and lileonows'no G. Booze, citizens of the United States of America, residing at Worcester, in the county of-Worcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented ce3rtain new and useful Improvements in lilethods of Making Articles of Ceramic Bonded Granular Material, of which the foil wing is a rfoil, clear, and exact specification.

Our invention relates to the ceramic art and more particularly to a method of making articles of ceramic bonded refractory or abrasive grains, or anti-slipping ma terial for use as a safety tread.

In making such ceramic articles as a refractory brick, an abrasive block or a safety tile, an eEp-cnsive and elaborate procedure has heretofore been the practice. In ac cordance therewith, one usually mixes suitable proportions of abrasive grain and rerious ceramic materials with a considerable amount of water to obtain the desired elegree of plasticity or moldahility for shaping the article, and this wateemust be subsequcntly removed in. a slow drying operation before the clay bond may be vitrinetl. lit the article is to be inatls'hy the dry press method, so called, also t 5% of water is added to the bond an abrasite mixture. After the materials have been mixed thoroughly, the damp lfiatcrial is measured oil into the press mold and the required shape is formed therein, The pressed. article must then be set in a drying room to cA/aporatc the water and handled many times before it is fired. If the article is to beformed by the puddling process, the mass must be more thoroughly wetted in order to give-a proper plasticity, the amount of water, which may be of the total volume, depending upon the type of bond employed. This very plastic'minture, after being thoroughly stirred for a considerable time in orderto produce the desired iiniformity of composition, 1s run into a mold and then set away in a drying room to get rid of the water. Both the pressed and the puddled articles are friable and have little cohesive strength, hence they must be handled with great care during the various operations subsequent to shaping and they must be carefully set in the. kiln to avoid. warpage, breakage, etc.

otherwise the rejections by the inspectors Application filed May 192a Serial No. cream.

will be high. It will accordingly be seenv that such methods are not economical for the manufacture of articles which do not need to be made of exact dimensions, such as a rubbing, brick or a grinding wheel which must 2 trued to'correct shape after it has been fired, and particularly such substances as terrazzo chips which are ordinarily rubbed or ground to a flat tread surface after being embedded in a concrete floor.

It is accordingly an object of our invention to overcome such difficulties and si1nplity the procedure of making various articles of ceramic bonded grains, as compared with the methods heretofore practiced, by reducing the number of required operations, eliminating the services of many skilled artisans as well as manual laborers, ininionizing the losses which ordinarily result from careless workmanship and generally in saving time and expense and thus making a rapid and-economical production a feasible proposition.

With this and other objects in View, as will be apparent in the following disclosure, our invention resides in the combination of steps as set forth in the specification and covered bythe claims appended hereto.

In accordance with our discovery, we have found.- that ceramic articles of the class ricscribed may be mass b a Sllllf Lil cedure, in which the use of watc eliminated, thus obviating the necessity of slur ing and drying the article before it can be fired This is accomplished by tiring a or mixture of the ingredients held in a suitable container, the ceramic bond selected for this article having such properties that during vitrification it is capable of drawing the grains together and holding them in a unitary formation. i

As a specific application of our invention, ,the following procedure involved in making a brick and terrazzo chips may be adopted. Abrasive and refractory grains are selected in accordance with the properties desired in the finished substance. For safety terrazzo chips we preferably utilize a super-refractory abrasive material of the type of crystalline alumina, which may be either in the natural form of coruntlum or e1'cery, or as artificially prepared in. the electric :fnrnacc, and with various degrees and types of impurities. Other equivalent materials. such ss-silic'oi biri-e, nniy of course be employed 22s is well own by those skilled in the ceramic by making suitable changes in the bond composition and firing treatment.

Under the practice heretofore followed, the article has first been :lt'ormcd either by pressure or by puddling, which has resulted in a compact and reasonably densestructure, In order therefore that a dry mixture may be fired without a preliminary com pactingoperetion and produce a strong-erticle, We preferably utilize a bond mixture which capable of being completely fused during the tiring operation, since this fluid glass will through surface tension draw the rains of abrasive together and make a dense rormstion. It of course is obvious that various vitrifiable bonds which are not completely ir'uscd during the firing operation may be employed, Within limitations which will be obvious to one skilled in the art. For example, it is of considerable importunes to have the material shrinlr away from the stagger, so that it may be easily removed without injury to the'comparatively expensive container. Hence we preferably select a bond which, it not entirely fused, yet has a sufliciently high shrinkage to .ullow of using our method to advantage. A ceramic bond Which Will be vitreous or entirely fused by the. usual ceramic lriln treatment may be made up of the following ingredients:

Slip clay-l4 parts by Weight.

Ball clay-12 parts by weight.

Feldspur-4 parts by Weight.

If the finished. article is to form an antislipping terrazzo chip or an abrasive block,

W8 scproportion the bond and the grain that the latter will make up the major portion of the total mass. A specific example of one composition may be as follows:

Crystalline alumina grain mesli)- 77% by weight.

Ceramic bond of the above cqmposition- 23% by weight.

It will of course be obvious that different grain sizes may be employed and that the bond mixture will be varied accordingly as is Well known in this art. The density and structure of the product are determined by the nature of the ingredients employed as well their relative proportions.

These materials are mixed in the dry condition until the ceramic bond has been thoroughly incorporated with the grains, this being preferably accomplished by means of u tumbling barrel or other suitable mechanical mixing: device. The mixture is then, without complementary treatment, shovelled into a refractory sagger and is ready for firing to vitrify the bond. This sage'er may be made of fire clay or of super-refractory materials as is desired. In order to prevcnt the vitrified mass from sticking to the sagger, We preferably place a layer of a super-refructory granular material on the bottom of the and for this purpose may employ crystalline alumina grains similar to those incorporated in the article but without bond mixed therewith, so that upon firing, Whilen layer of these grains may become incorporated in the article, yet due to the absence elf-bond, they will not be united to the sagg'er.

The article is tired to vitrity the bondin accordance with Well known ceramic procedure such as, for example, in a, periodic or a tunnel kiln for a suitable period which may be 5-9 to 100 hours and at a temperature approximating cone or about 1300 0.,

depending of course on'tlle nature of the.

bond, For certainv products, such as terrazzo chips, the firing operation may he very rapid and the cooling period may be materially shortened, since imperfections such as cracks formed in the article will not be detrimental and in fact may aid the subsequent operation of crushing the mass. In the firing operation the vitritlsble materials are fused to a glassy condition and thor oughly envelop the grains of abrasive and form posts and webs between the grains which bond them together, but owing to the small amount at bond ordinarily employed a considerable amount of pore space is left in the article.

By levelling the material in the sagger and taking suitable precautions welllmown to ceramists, it is possible to form an article which, while rough in appearance, will have more or less true dimensions and may be used as a brick or tile. The sagger may of course be specially shaped to give a desired form to the article. In order to form at terrazzo chip it. is merely necessery that this fired article after cooling be crushed by suitable means usual type. The chips are screened or sorted to the required dimensions and are then ready to be embedded in cement to form a terrazzo anti-slipping" surfacing.

Certain types of grinding wheel may be produced by this n'iethod, If it is desired to form the Wheel with a central hole for the machine spindle, we have found it feasible to utilize e core of combustible mater al, such'as s cardboard tube or a wooden plug,

which will hold the loose material in place.

until the sagger has been set in the kiln and dan 'er of jarring is past. The nature of the core will depend on the capability. of the loose material to hold its form during han- (lling and the vitrification process.

It is obvious that various modifications may be made in our method and that numerpus types of articles may be manufactured within the scope of our invention, hence the appended clanns are to be interpreted broadly to coversuch equivalent steps and products.

such as a jaw crusher of the women Having V thus described our invention, What W6 chum as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. The method of making it ceramic erv ticie comprising the steps of mixing abrasive grains end :1 vitrifiable bond in dry condition and thereafter firing the UIl'fOI'IHEfii dry mixture to vitrii'y the bond.

2. The method of making a ceramic erticie comprising the steps of dry mixing abrasive grains and e Vitrifiebie bonding material, placing the ioose dry mixture in a, refractory "container enci firing the some to vitrify the bond arui form e unitery mese 3. The method of making a cerumic urticie comprising the steps of dry mixing abrasive grains and e vitrifieble bond, supporting the loose dry mixture on ii. layer of super-retireetory granules and firing the mess to ritrify the bond and unite the grains into on integrai mass.

4. The method of making a hoiiow cerium ie article comprising the steps of dry mixing abrasive grain and :1 vitrifiebic bond, placing the loose, dry mixture around a cone bustible core in a refractory seg'ger, and

thereafter firing the mixture to vitrii'y the bond and burn out the core.

5. The method of making a hollow ceramic article comprising the steps of dry mixing abrasive grains and a vitrifioble ceramic bond, placing it layer of super-refractory granules in the bottom of a container, packing the loose dry mixture around a combustible core Within said container, and thereafter firing the mixture. I

6. The method of making ceramic bodies comprising the steps of dry .mixin abrasive grain and a ceramic bonding materiel capable of being fused to a vitreous condition, piecing v. layer of super-refractory granules on the bottomof a refractory segg er, packing the loose dry mixture in said sagger and firing the mixture to fuse the bond to a vitreous condition and form an integral mass.

in testimony whereof We have hereunto set our signatures.

Micron r. senor-mu. MACDONALD o. BOOZE. 

